President Obama is preparing to address the nation on Syria Tuesday night after granting seven-minute interviews Monday to six network news programs — but not Univision, Al Jazeera or black-oriented television networks — in which he left open the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the crisis over reports of Syria's use of chemical weapons.

In addition, "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Charlie Rose on Sunday that he is preparing for a U.S. strike, and that Syria and some of their allies would retaliate if one occurs," Hari Sreenivasan reported for the "PBS NewsHour." "I spoke with Rose, host of the PBS program that bears his name, as he was boarding his flight back to the United States after interviewing Assad in Damascus, Syria, Sunday morning. It is the first interview the Syrian president has given to an American network in nearly two years. . . ."

Peralta wrote, "In interviews with six television network anchors, Obama said his administration would 'run to ground' a Russian proposal that would avoid an international military confrontation by putting Syria's chemical weapons in international hands.

He continued, "Secretary of State John Kerry first floated the possibility during a press conference in England this morning. The proposal was then picked up by the Russians and Syria's foreign minister said the country welcomed the overture."

The story said, "Obama also added that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had talked about the plan now on the table both during the recent G-20 meeting in Russia and during another meeting last year in Mexico.

"In other words, the proposal is a true diplomatic breakthrough long in the making."

Peralta added, "In fact, as those interviews were airing, the AP reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, announced he was delaying a test vote on a measure authorizing military force in Syria."

"On Russia's proposal for Syria to turn over chemical weapons to international monitors (Fox News):

" 'This is something that is not new. I've been discussing this with President Putin for some time now.'

"On whether military strikes would be on hold if Syria surrendered its chemical weapons (ABC):

" 'Absolutely — if in fact that happened. … If we can do that without a military strike, that is overwhelmingly my preference.'

"On whether that would be the end of it (CNN):

'It does not solve the broader political situation. I would say to Mr. Assad, we need a political settlement so that you're not slaughtering your own people, uh, and, by the way, encouraging some elements of the opposition to engage in some terrible behavior, as well.'

"On the vote in Congress (NBC):

" 'I wouldn't say I'm confident. I'm confident that the members of Congress are taking this issue very seriously and — and they're doing their homework and I appreciate that.'

"On whether he would act without Congress (NBC):

" 'I think it's fair to say that I haven't decided.'

"On why Congress matters (ABC):

" 'Strikes may be less effective if I don't have congressional support and if the American people don't recognize why we're doing this. … My hope would be that I can persuade Congress (and) the American people.'

"On Secretary of State John Kerry's statement that military action would be 'unbelievably small' (NBC):

" 'The U.S. does not do pinpricks. Our military is the greatest the world has ever known. And when we take even limited strikes, it has an impact on a country like Syria.'

"On his family's feelings about Syria (PBS):

" 'If you talk to my own family members — or Michelle's — you know, they're very wary and suspicious of any action.' "

"150,000+ Latinos are serving in the U.S. military. But none of the 6 interviews given today by Obama include Univision #LessonsNOTlearned," Ramos tweeted Monday. Another tweet read, "Pres. Obama gives 6 interviews today. None of those to Univision. Why? Hispanics also care about Syria. Same mistake as presidential debates." [Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, wrote an essay supporting this position Tuesday for Fox News Latino.]

Katherine A. Vargas, White House director of Hispanic media, did not respond to a request from Journal-isms for comment. White House spokesman Jay Carney was likewise silent on the question, Farhi reported. The largest black-oriented television networks, Black Entertainment Television and TV One, do not have daily newscasts (although the new but smaller Soul of the South does).

" 'There's only one major network that reaches the majority of Arabs and Muslims and others in the greater Middle East,' he wrote. 'If President Obama reckons it's important to speak to six US networks, then talking to Al Jazeera — Arabic and English channels — is paramount for any future action in Syria.' "

Meanwhile, public opinion was hardening against Obama's bid for congressional approval for a retaliatory strike against the Syrian government over reports that it had used chemical weapons against its own people.

Reports on the two surveys did not provide racial breakdowns. However, polls last week showed that African Americans, Obama's most loyal voting bloc, nevertheless are breaking with the president over his request for military action.

Obama's favorability ratings have also declined, according to the two organizations, but Michael Dimock, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, said on the "PBS NewsHour" that "African Americans, minorities" were among the groups still with the president.

" 'It's the freelancer hypocrisy — they ignore us until they realize they're desperate,' says one freelancer whose work appears in major news outlets. Like many sources I spoke to, he did not want to be named. In the British news industry, a reputation for awkwardness virtually guarantees unemployment.

"In the July/August issue of CJR, Francesca Borri, who freelances from Syria for Italian news outlets, described conditions where she is sometimes too poorly paid to afford the driver, flak jacket, or insurance that would help mitigate the dangers of reporting there. The risks of reporting from Syria were already daunting. But now, to add to the peril of the gangs of kidnappers — for whom Western journalists have become a prize target — there is also the danger of getting caught in potential American airstrikes and further gas attacks.

"Today's news editors rely on freelancers more than ever because they have too few staff reporters, and those that are still employed may be reluctant to risk their lives. For these reasons, Syria is sometimes called the 'freelancer's war.' Figures for the numbers of journalists killed there bears this out. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly half of the 56 journalists killed in Syria since the conflict began have been freelance. . . ."

"The Syrian delegation, online and radio reporters who asked to remain anonymous in print, has been touring the US with the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. In New York, the journalists' last stop, they addressed about 200 Columbia j-school students at an event hosted by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The students and professors alike, toting brown bags and munching on prepackaged sandwiches, were all drinking in the seriousness, and the extraordinary timeliness, of the visitors' presence.

"One firm message emerged from the discussion: A professional and powerful press is the easiest way to change public opinion. Journalism matters, and these Syrians have risked their lives proving it. 'We face a major challenge,' one journalist said boldly, 'of changing the definition of media fundamentally in Syria.' Western involvement and media coverage, they explained, would drastically improve the state of Syrian journalism. In turn, improvement in Syrian media will allow Syrians to better convey information to both international media outlets and to Western policymakers who would potentially send aid. . . ."

"On Friday, Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg sent out an email to the newsroom announcing that the paper had come up with a new publication that will pander to the Herald's most neglected and overlooked demographic: Hispanics," Bill Cooke reported Sunday on his Miami-based Random Pixels blog, featured Monday on Jim Romenesko's media blog.

"It's a natural. After all, the Herald already has a magazine for rich, white people...so why not Hispanics?

"What's next? A magazine called 'The 'Hood?' "

An email from Landsberg to the staff said, "Caliente is fun and makes perfect business sense for us: it targets Spanish preferred readers who currently do not consume our products. The 40-page tabloid features weird local stories (no shortage), loud headlines, celebrity gossip, horoscopes, a relationship column, recipes, immigration information, sports — especially futbol y beisbol — and a bikini model."

One feature invites readers to "Meet the woman with the world's largest hips."

"The comments on the site that you reference are unfortunately not correct. While we do not respond to sites of this nature, we appreciate that you reached out to us to get the correct information," Alvarez said by email.

"At the Miami Herald Media Company, we understand that South Florida Hispanics are a widely diverse group, and not all Hispanics read the same publications.

"We constantly use research to help us broaden our array of publications to reach the greatest number of readers in South Florida.

"Our new Caliente weekly tabloid is an exciting product that mirrors tabloid publications that are commonly produced by mainstream newspapers in Latin America and the Caribbean to capture a different audience.

"Caliente is hyper-local, light and very interactive. Features will include headlines from Latin America, celebrity gossip, movie reviews, dining trends, health and recipes, advice columns, horoscopes, sports and telenovelas (Spanish soap operas). It will also profile our Chica Caliente, a bikini model who will heat up the pages of Caliente with fashionable swimwear. This product is exciting for us. It is new and unlike any other currently in the market, and will serve a segment of our diverse South Florida community. . . ."

"According to a new study by Duke University professor Jen'nan Ghazal Read, policymakers should be working hard to ensure that demographic subgroups are portrayed as accurately as the data allow."

Cepeda also wrote, "In her study published in the journal Population Research and Policy Review, Read used two distinct subgroups, Mexicans and Arabs, to tease out very different stories about the nature of their circumstances compared to how the census usually describes them.

"She found that if the census broadened its standard definition to include people who don't identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino — but who were nonetheless born in Mexico or report Mexican ancestry — in the 'Mexican' Hispanic origin question, the number of Mexican-Americans known to be legally in the U.S. would increase nearly 10 percent. . . ."

Cepeda added, " 'Absolutely people will choose not to identify as Mexican,' Read said, noting that many U.S.-born Mexicans consider the term 'Mexican' synonymous with 'immigrant,' and others with Mexican ancestry seek to differentiate themselves from newer immigrants. In both cases, they reject the term 'Mexican' in order to distance themselves from the negative stereotypes associated with foreign-born migrant workers. . . ."

"Collins was 58." On Saturday, he hosted the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists' end-of-summer gathering at his home, "and like always, he was engaging and entertaining," Rod Hicks of the Associated Press Philadelphia bureau told Journal-isms.

WCAU also said, "Colleagues remembered Collins as the 'Unofficial Mayor of Philadelphia.' He was 'a true leader who cared immensely about his family, his community and his co-worker,' said Radio One regional vice president Christopher Wegmann."

It further reported, "Collins' accolades included work on local television, as an analyst on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews as well as work for CNN, PBS and other media entities. He also sat [on the board of] Ivy Legacy, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Multicultural Affairs Congress, the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and Mayor [Michael] Nutter's Commission on Literacy. . . ."

The Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists added in a statement, "In addition to personal mentoring of students, E. Steven was key in connecting young generations of journalists, and those new to the area with the region’s key political, business, and community professionals. . . ."

"But Meg Heckman says the study's authors, John Huey, Martin Nisenholtz and Paul Sagan, 'repeat a mistake made by too many media historians: The contributions of women are largely omitted.' "

Beaujon added, "There are but a few minorities interviewed as well."

On Twitter, Beaujon wrote, "former Nieman fellow David Skok — who had nothing to do with the project — said he was 'ashamed to admit' that the diversity of interviewees 'didn't cross my mind' until he read others tweeting about it. . . ."

" 'Think about the name,' he wrote to me in an email. " 'Think about the stereotypical connotations around color. We would not accept anything similar as a team nickname if it were associated with any other ethnicity or any other race.

" 'Over the years, the more I thought about it, the less comfortable I became using it. I’m not sure other Americans have stopped to hear the voices of Native Americans. I can only imagine how painful it must be to hear or see that word over and over, referenced so casually every day.' "

However, there were countervailing arguments: "ESPN should be covering the news, not making it." "ESPN should consider how the consequences of an 'adversarial environment' could limit 'access' in covering the team." "A gesture as aggressive as attacking a famous, long-standing team is antithetical to the ESPN business model."

Lipsyte concluded, "The most sensible ongoing strategy I've heard is from Patrick Stiegman, vice president and editor-in-chief of ESPN.com, who said: 'To simply ignore the nickname in our coverage seems like nothing more than grandstanding. We can use the name of the team, but our best service to fans is to report the hell out of the story, draw attention to the issue and cover all aspects of the controversy. ' "

"It was there when President and First Lady Obama took brand new HBCU alumni and their families to task on Morehouse and Bowie State's graduation days. It was there when Don Lemon posed Boy Scout-esque steps that we — we — could take to end racism. I thought of those words when our beloved POTUS came for us again in his comments during the celebration of the anniversary on the March on Washington. And when Sheryl Underwood sat beneath a shiny wig and before a largely White audience and mocked nappy Black hair. And again yesterday, as the image of a crying Black girl circulated the net after her Black-led school punished her for having Black girl hair.

"I don't think that any of these people would tell you that they hate Black people or themselves or things that are associated with blackness. But the uncomfortable thread running all through these narratives is the suggestion that we have to be good to be good enough. To be respected, to be human, to be validated in the eyes of White folk. . . ."

"As expected, WPIX has named Kori Chambers morning co-anchor. Chambers will begin at Tribune’s CW affiliate in New York City, anchoring alongside Sukanya Krishnan weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m., on October 7, Merrill Knox reported Monday for TVSpy. Chambers was the morning and noon anchor at Fox-owned WFLD-TV in Chicago.

In an essay for PolicyMic, Gracie Jin notes that "Bill Cheng's first novel, Southern Cross the Dog, debuted in June. His book, a fine example of writing what you don't know, has been billed as 'audacious' and 'ambitious,' but you'll be hard-pressed to find a review that doesn't wonder at the novelty of a Chinese-American man from Queens, New York, writing about rural black Mississippi." By contrast, "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year with few questions as to the authenticity of Johnson's account. "Johnson's book is about North Korea, even though Johnson is plain old American," Jin wrote.

"Miley Cyrus is out of Vogue," Irving DeJohn and Zayda Rivera wrote Sunday for the Daily News in New York. "The celeb's crude twerking at the MTV Video Music Awards reportedly cost her the coveted cover spot of the Anna Wintour-edited fashion bible. . . ."

Antonio Mora, host of Al Jazeera America's talk show, "Consider This," was asked by the network, "How do you think the diversity at Al Jazeera America will impact the way the news and stories are told?" Mora replied, "I’m a firm believer that you need variety in the newsroom in order to be able to properly cover the news accurately and completely. This country is unbelievably diverse, and everyone has a different perspective. If you don't have a diverse group of people, you are going to miss stories or important perspectives on the stories you cover. A diverse newsroom ensures that we will have a better chance of really putting our finger on the pulse of America. And that's exactly what we have at Al Jazeera America and on the 'Consider This' team."

"Blacks will spend nearly $1 trillion this year and only about six cents from every dollar will go to Black businesses," the Nation of Islam's Final Call newspaper said on Aug. 9. "As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan noted in a recent Time and What Must Be Done webcast, saving literally pennies a day by millions of people, Black people, in America can begin to give us what we need. If the 16 million employed Blacks in the U.S. gave a mere 35 cents a week for a year, in one year we could collectively amass $291 million to acquire land, businesses and tools for our future, he pointed out. Black journalists should get behind this discussion and movement about what we must do to service and save ourselves. We would say quite simply, the job you save may be your own."

"Veteran Fox4 reporter Emily Lopez is leaving the Dallas-based station. Her last day is Sunday," Ed Bark reported Friday on his Dallas-area media blog. " 'Yup, it's true,' Lopez confirmed via email Friday. 'My husband got a job out of state and I will be joining him. It's hard to leave a place after seven years.' " She said she could not elaborate.

Richard Prince's Journal-isms originates from Washington and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It began in print before most of us knew what the Internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a "column." For newcomers: The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information. The Web site BugMeNot.com provides passwords and user names to some registration-only news sites, but use may be illegal in some states. Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.

Comments

It's a shame that even we judge the president by the color of his skin instead of the content of his character or the job he does. I'm greatly saddened that we're involved in the mess in Syria. There will be no winners no matter what we do. We really don't know who gassed the civilians and even if we manage to remove the president of Syria we may find that we're in a worse mess as many of the "rebels" are factions of terrorist groups.

QuietThoughtsII

Seemed every where I turned his speech was on. Shrug...

main street

The 6 Stations had the largest viewing Audience, Univision was the only one overlooked. All other Stations, including Podunk Alabama, were to small to insert into the time space allotted. IMA Human Being likes this.

LogicalLeopard I

So wait, the President of the United States does an address to the nation last night, right? AND he decides to give six 7 minute interviews on TOP of that. So that's 42 minutes of interview time, plus all of the stuff in between the interviews, so lets call it 1 and 1/2 hours at the LEAST, and probably more like two. On top of the prep he had to do for his speech, the actual speech itself, AND the rest of the stuff he had to do in his work day.

And people are mad that he didn't give BET or Al Jazeera an interview?

This is probably the most ridiculous criticism I've heard in a long time. He covered the six major networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, and Fox News. The first four channels are FREE, so most of America could see the interviews with no problem. The second two are probably the two biggest cable news networks. NBC owns univision, right? They couldn't translate their NBC interview for Univision? Al-Jazeera? This message was for the American people, not people in other countries. And I'm sure Al Jazeera's American station could have competently reported on any issues that weren't covered in the address to their viewers. And BET? Uhm......I could be wrong, but how many people's channels stay zoomed in on BET all day? I admit, back in the day, I used to catch Donnie Simpson in the morning and the evening, but seriously, black people know how to find CNN just like everyone else does. This is pretty ridiculous.

QuietThoughtsII and IMA Human Being like this.

IMA Human Being

Good post LL, you and Mongo play the fence quite well. Patience is a virtue i no longer have !

princeeditor

NBC owns Telemundo, not Univision.

KdogII

"quit whining" "put your slipper on"

You people sound surprised.

Kinsmankid likes this.

LogicalLeopard I

"You people?"

QuietThoughtsII likes this.

KdogII

Black people. Any other questions?

D Man

Lets look at the President Race History:

1. White cops arrest his friend in his own home. President called say that was an "Stupid Act"...white people jumped all over him.

2. The President called Kanye West stupid. White people praised him.

3. The President tell Blacks to quite complaining and get their lazy butts off the couch when unemployment for Blacks was at 14%.

4. Behind in the Polls...and need Blacks support...all you have to do is sing alittle Al Green.

5. Gays demand respect and the President fight hard for their causes. So, what I am saying is this President is so worried about WHITES seeing him as a Black President that he will avoid almost anything to do with BLACKS unless it is an NATIONAL EVENT like MLK Day or Civil Rights Celebration. Let them say, we are celebrating SOUL TRAIN being the first dance show on television. And he will respond with the sound of crickets...SILENCE....and avoidance.

Play Righter

D Man:

(If this shows up more than once, it didn't appear when typed before).

2: I believe Mr. Obama actually referred to Kanye as a "jack-a$$".

Mr. Obama called the response to Katrina "colorblind".

crazy d

Breaking News !!!! Because of saving Obama's Butt from political destruction, Putin's Image to become part of Mount Rushmore. MSM to proclaim possibly another Noble Peace Prize for Dear Leader O. ... Priceless.

QuietThoughtsII

Ok, fess up, exactly what sort of drugs are you doing?

Borrokatu

He skipped any media that won't kiss his rear over this mess. ricthought1 likes this.

IMA Human Being

" I SUPPORT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MR. PRESIDENT " !!!

IMA Human Being

Special Thanks to our Commander-In-Chief, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. To all you ignorant white folks and foolish negroes, feeling sorry for syria and loving on putin, now would be a good time to MOVE !!!

crazy d

IMA aka QT .... Your so pathetic to bow down to a Politician.

KdogII likes this.

QuietThoughtsII

You could not be more wrong, but then you're white...

ricthought1

Exactly, nothing like being a Jew lackey POTUS ready to bomb Syria into the stone age for the sake of Israel.

IMA Human Being

...and you ignorant white folks have "john wayne" rolling over in his grave !

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